Friday Finds & Feels #3
A weekly collection of discoveries, musings, and moments that have sparked something in me this week. May these small moments of joy, inspiration and thoughts light up your weekend
This Week's Joy: As I was driving through Northern California on my way home from my visa appt (yes, I am one step closer to finding my way to Portugal), I witnessed something so awe-inspiring. At first I thought it was just your normal flock of geese crossing way above the highway, their v formation a moving work of art. But as I continued to drive, the sunset casting hues of golden yellow and pink across the sky, I kept seeing more and more swarms of geese. Never-ending across the sky. The further I drove, the more I saw. Everywhere I looked they painted the sky with their beautiful formations. I have never seen anything like it in my life. There were thousands of them, some crossing right over the freeway, others were specks way off in the distance. It was such a beautiful thing to have witnessed.
Something to Ponder:
What I'm Exploring: Never in a million years did I think I would say these words but…I’m fostering puppies. Yes, we know puppies are absolutely adorable but we also know they are an immense amount of work and that I have now committed to 3 weeks of very little sleep accompanied by a lot of cuteness. When I saw the post in my foster FB group, a heartbreaking story of 9 puppies and their mom left outside to fend for themselves with an owner who wouldn’t feed or care for them, I waited to see everyone else step up and offer a safe place to land. Two days passed and they still needed a few more commitments in order to save these dogs. In a world that seems all too dark these days, I couldn’t bear the thought of these dogs left out to die and despite my better judgement, I led with my heart and I am going to pick up two puppies today! Stay tuned for pics or follow along over on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to get daily pupdates!
A Little Treat: Thanks to me spending over 30 hours in a car in the last three days, I was able to get some listening done to audiobooks that had been gathering dust on my phone.
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz - a true crime, murder mystery-esque story that takes place in New York City. It deals with heavy subject matter (SA, murder, violence against women) that will likely stir up some anger and sadness for any woman trying to exist and survive in this world. There were parts of this book I really enjoyed but in general am coming to realize that I struggle to “love” books that deal with the horrors of the world we live in. These books are often the most heart-wrenching and need to be told but a lot of times they end up weighing too heavily on my heart.
Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day by Ken Mogi - I was expecting more of a how-to book but was delightfully surprised at how much I learned about Japanese culture and history in this book. It was a super quick read/listen (4 hours) and although there were no huge revelations, there were some nice little takeaways as well as new, fun facts learned!
In My Journal: What is it about growing your own food that is so satisfying? I can’t stop daydreaming about the tiny farm I will have one day and the fruits and vegetables I will grow and the recipes I will get to create with food grown by me. As I processed the tomatoes into sauce, taking the time to scoop out the seeds and remove the skins, I thoroughly enjoyed the time and effort it took because I swear it made it all taste that much better. Curious about what I did with the homemade sauce? Made it into a creamy tomato risotto that was out of this world. You can find the recipe here (although I will be the first to admit that I omitted the garlic breadcrumbs from this recipe even though they do sound delicious).
Here is where you can read all of my Notes aka the space where I try to convince you that Substack is better than any other social media app out there.
I just had my visa appointment in San Francisco. It didn’t go exactly as I expected and to bore you with the details here seems unnecessary but I am crossing my fingers that it will all unfold as it is meant to and all will go well. The one positive is that I was there for 2 hours, which from what I can tell based on other experiences is about as quickly as you can hope for!
I of course had to make an obligatory stop at In-N-Out on my Cali road trip adventure and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE their burgers but I will die on this hill when I say their fries are an abomination. I hate their fries and made the mistake of trying them after years of boycotting them in the hopes that they had somehow decided to make them edible over the past few years but I can now confirm they are just as terrible as ever. 10/10 do not recommend.
San Francisco is swarming with WAYMO cars, which are self-driving rideshare cars and when I tell you I felt like I was in some sci-fi movie driving through the streets of the city while being surrounded by cars with no people in them, using turn signals, reversing after deciding not to go through a yellow light and maneuvering streets that even I, as a sentient being, was nervous to drive around. The future is here and it is freaking wild.
